Pan Asian & Hot Pots

To bring the week to a close, HRH the Queen of Kutch and myself decided to do something new [by our standards] but within an overall old concept or framework. So instead of reserving a MERU Cab we got ourselves a TAB Cab. The plan was to go to the ITC Grand Maratha at Sahar Andheri East near the International Airport, and after a few intoxicants, amble to one of their 3 great restaurants Dakshin or Dum Pukht or Peshawri for dinner. The TAB Cab turned up, which was a relief, and we soon careening along the Western Express Highway in a extremely rattly Toyota Etios driven by our `Saathi’ [that is what TAB calls its drivers] at breakneck speed swerving wildly from lane to lane. We heaved a sigh of relief when we reached, in one piece with all four wheels on. I needed my drink.

The bar at the ITC Grand Maratha is quite nice; however, it’s normally fairly empty on weekends. This Friday it was quite full and with a decent band pumping out live music, the atmosphere was very nice. We were welcomed and settled down to our drinks. As you must know by now, I generally drink beer and, at the ITC Grand Maratha the draft beer is particularly good. It’s the same old Kingfisher available at most places, but, for some reason at the Bombay High, it’s always fresher, colder and simply nicer than any other place. I really do like it. HRH the Queen of Kutch had her usual, Isle of Jura.

Inevitably, it became decision making time; we had to decide where to go for dinner. We were told that Niladari, a very competent Captain from Dum Pukth had been promoted and become the manager at the Pan Asian, which as the name suggests is ITC’s Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Korean food outlet. I must point out that we had visited Pan Asian in the past and were rather underwhelmed by the experience. Indifferent food, largely Indianised in as much as it was all spicy with lurid red sauces, and targeted towards vegetarians and disguised vegetarians those who eat only chicken, preferably boneless. Thus, we had not visited it in years. With Niladari in command we took our chance and did something new, we went to the Pan Asian for dinner.

Peanuts and Kimchi to pass time

Our dinner was pre-decided for us. As a sort of pre starter we were given a small plate of Thai Som Tam, the raw Papaya Salad. Nice. Then as a starter we had a portion of Prawn Sui Mai. Excellent, gossamer like wrapping and generously filled with Prawn. Thankfully, not yet indianised. No spice of any sort. Really nice and just right to get the gastric juices going.

Som Tam

Prawn Sui Mai

Next up for our main course we were to have a Hot Pot. The correct word is Chinese Steamboat. This is a sort of Asian fondue where a large bowl of stock is placed in the centre of the table on a heater to keep the stock simmering. The stock could be a simple chicken or have regional variations and get steadily spicy. In parts of China the stock is a lurid red heavily flavoured with chilli oil and Sichuan Peppercorns to give you the `Ma La’ sensation.

The heater on the table

The Stock 

The Hot Pot concept is not unique to China. Hot Pots are popular throughout South East Asia. The Chinese have their variations, the Korean have theirs and the Japanese have what they call Shabu Shabu. In South East Asia, Hot Pot restaurants take pride in offering special and unique cuts of meat and fish to dip into the stock ranging from Wagyu beef to Fish Balls, Offal and so on.

The Swiss of course have the cheese fondue in which the pot called a Caquelon is filled with cheese and heated with a spirit lamp. You dip pieces of bread and eat them with pickles and dried meat washed down with White Wine. You could also have a Chocolate fondue where the pot would contain liquid chocolate in which you dip pieces of fruit. You could have a fondue Bourguignonne where you have hot oil in which you dip pieces of meat to eat with various accompanying sauces. 

The common theme in all these fondues and hot pots is that they are traditionally eaten in winter and are particularly well suited to a meal when you have kids with you or, if you are at a party with lots of happily drunk folks. Very interactive, great entertainment. 

At the Pan Asian we got get a selection of raw marinated proteins [lamb, pork, beef, chicken, squid and prawn] and a selection of vegetables [Zucchini, Baby Corn, Bok Choy, Broccoli and two types of Mushroom]. The meats are sliced very thin so that they cook in seconds. You also get a bowl of boiled Noodle to supplement your soup. Condiments offered to spice up your soup are minced Garlic cooked in oil, a Peanut sauce and Green Onion.

        

The condiments - Peanut Sauce,  Green Onion and Garlic in Sesame Oil

The proteins

The vegetables

Your bowl

There are several ways of going about eating a Hot Pot. You always get your own bowl to eat from. In one method the meats, fish, noodle and vegetables are left on the table. You then choose a small portion of what you like, fill it into your own fishing net type contraption and place it in the hot pot to cook. Once done you fish it out, add it to your bowl and eat. This is repeated till you are full.

At the Pan Asian the method was slightly different. The meat, and at our request, only the mushroom and Bok Choy were added to the cauldron merrily bubbling in the centre. I really did not like the idea of loading my soup with Baby Corn, Broccoli and Zucchini. That is fine for the Jains, Khandelwals and Shahs, not me. After a few moments the meat was cooked and we ladled out portions of the soup and the meat into our bowls and ate. Once the meat was eaten we put in the squid and prawn as this takes a fraction of time to cook. The stock itself was a decently spiced Sichuan style stock and was quite tasty. The quality of the meat and fish was top class. 

A glass of Red for HRH the Queen to wash down the Hot Pot

To finish, we were given a bowl of Tub Tim Grob a Thai desert. It is a classic, sweetened coconut milk with vividly coloured water chestnut dumplings. Actually, the dessert worked after those heavy flavours.

Tub Tim Grob

All in all, we had a very good meal. Absolutely nothing to complain about. I must caution you that the dish is expensive and if you have fussy eaters on the table it’s really no fun. All persons on the table have to eat the same thing or at least not object if you place beef or pork in the same soup. With a large group things can really get quite exciting.

  

If you don’t want to spend an arm and a leg and want to have a Hot Pot in Mumbai you could have a Hot Pot at Lings Pavillion which is quite popular and quite good. The stock served at Lings Pavillion is un-spiced, and as the evening goes on gets richer and more flavourful as it evaporates and absorbs the flavours of the meats added to it. The Lings Pavillion Hot Pot is slightly different, here they add the thin Glass Noodles to the stock and you don’t get any additional condiments. The are really a Cantonese Restaurant so the food is largely bland, unlike at the Pan Asian where spicing is almost across the board. I have also had the Hot Pot at Kamling Restaurant at Churchgate. However, from what I have heard, the restaurant is really on its death bed so I do not recommend your going there.

All in all a very nice evening, excellent food and great service. What more could one want.  

Rum N Raisin - you must be joking!

2nd August 2012 was the day of Raksha Bandhan or Rakhi. This is a religious festival to celebrate the relationship between brothers and sisters. It’s observed all over India and the central ceremony involves the tying of a sacred thread [Rakhi] by a sister on her brother’s wrist. This symbolizes the sister's love and prayers for her brother's well-being, and the brother's lifelong vow to protect her. There is a lot of attendant symbolism attached to this act of tying a Rakhi. Raksha Bandhan is also followed by Muslims and with today’s commercialism, Raksha Bandhan cuts across communal barriers. It is common to give the brother some sweets along with the Rakhi. It’s also common for a brother to give sweets to the sister who tied the Rakhi on his wrist. Needless to say manufacturers of sweets regard this day as a sort of manna from heaven.

Cadbury the confection manufacturer has been steadily building one of its advertising campaigns around this theme. Naturally on 2nd August 2012 the campaign went into overdrive and the morning’s newspapers had a very expensive glossy page inserted which caught my attention.

The page advertised the `Rich Dry Fruit Collection’ of chocolates by Cadbury and the first chocolate named was “Rum ‘N’ Raisin”. On seeing this I choked on my coffee, nearly fell of my chair and had to take a few deep breaths to bring my pounding heart back to normal.  I could not believe what I was reading.  “Rum ‘N’ Raisin” chocolates being advertised in the national newspapers? What was the world coming to? Where was ACP Vasant Dhoble?

“Rum ‘N’ Raisin” chocolate being sold to children? “Rum ‘N’ Raisin” chocolate being promoted as a gift on a sacred occasion when alcohol is not served? Most Hindus and Muslims don’t drink, children should not drink and here we have a “Rum ‘N’ Raisin” chocolate?  What is going on I thought? I needed to investigate and get to the bottom of this. So off I went to the neighbourhood grocer and got myself a bar of “Rum ‘N’ Raisin” chocolate.

I looked at the list of ingredients, and the first thing I saw was that the chocolate is vegetarian as indicated by the green dot enclosed in a green square. The list of ingredients revealed sugar, cocoa butter, milk solids, cocoa solids, emulsifiers and raisins. No rum! The wrapper helpfully informed me that the chocolate also had some flavours. But no rum! So then why is Cadbury allowed to call this chocolate “Rum ‘N’ Raisin” if it contains no rum? Is this not mis-describing something? Is this not some sort of cheating, false representation?

I am scratching my head.

However, there are bright sides to this. Priti Chandriani the poor lady who was arrested and released on bail for selling liquor chocolates may be guilty of violating the Bombay Prohibition Act, but under no circumstances will she be guilty of misrepresentation. She was making liquor chocolates using and containing liquor!

I am sure you have heard of Anna Hazardous publicly flogging men who drank alcohol in his village Ralegan Siddhi. Anna is a puritanical sort of fellow. Anyway, presumably if Priti Chandiriani gave [not sold ] you some of her delicious liquor chocolates when you visited Ralegan Siddhi you were certainly a candidate for a whipping by Anna and his merry men. But if you took slabs of Cadbury “Rum ‘N’ Raisin” chocolates you could be sure that nothing would happen.

I am sure you think I am nuts making such a big deal about this. But mis-description is a serious issue. Cadbury is a part of the giant Kraft Foods conglomerate. Should this sort of false product description be allowed?

The Pint Room

The Pint Room. The new all beer outlet opened in Bandra adjoining Great Punjab, the place we went to have a drink on this Wednesday during the holy months of Ramadhan and Shravan. What a crushing disappointment, what a huge let down, what a shame.

The Pint Room comes with an enviable pedigree. It’s a concept owned by Pradeep Gidwani the man who has headed, if I remember correctly, Fosters, Carlsberg and Red Bull in India. If anybody knows how to sell beer it should be him. This ‘only beer’ outlet has been carved out of a portion of Great Punjab, a Punjabi restaurant whose owners know what Punjabi food is. The Pint Room opened some 10 odd days ago and we made our way there to sample some of the beers on offer.

The Pint Room is rather small with an uncomfortable badly designed bar, a couple of high tables with high stools and some cane banquettes/sofas. It’s brightly lit with a large window looking out onto the hugely busy Linking Road. Several florescent beer signs and beer themed posters form the decor. The far end of the bar counter had 4 taps [Kingfisher, Hoegaarden and two other beers whose names I forget] which looked delightfully frosted.

We entered at 8 pm to find that we were the only people inside; the waiters were sitting at a table in the corner working on computers. The manager was smoking outside and soon came in after we were seated. Grim start.  We got a sheet of paper fixed on a clipboard listing the beers on offer. In all honesty there are several with prices ranging from Rs 1,300/- for a 330 ml to Rs 175/- for the local Kingfisher and Carlsberg.

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HRH the Queen of Kutch ordered a Portuguese Stout called Super Bock. I stuck to a Carlsberg. The Stout cost Rs 475/- and my Carlsberg cost Rs 175/-. Thankfully the menu says that the prices are all inclusive so you pay for what you get, no added on taxes and service charge. The tragedy was that both drinks were not cold. Yes they came out of a chiller but by no stretch of imagination were either of the bottles properly chilled. HRH the Queen of Kutch could barely finish her drink. I thought I should give the Pint Room another chance so I ordered a Kingfisher draft from the enticingly frosted taps.  Oddly, this too was not cold. Soon a waiter turned up and offered me another beer. I said that I wanted an Indian beer provided it was cold. The waiter brought two bottles for me to do the `touch test’. Both were not cold. We asked for the bill and walked out. By the time we left at 8.45 there was one more couple had just entered the Room. We left them to enjoy their beers in solitary splendour.

I will tell you why I was so disappointed. Surely for a place that specialises in beer, owned by one of the more successful beer company CEOs, the least you can expect is a bottle of truly cold beer. To have 3 beers all different from different supply sources [bottles and tap] that were not properly chilled was deeply disappointing. It was not that the place was so crushingly full that the beers stored in the chillers had run out. We are talking of just 2 of us in a bar. Why is there such a casual attitude to a paying customer? Are we all to be taken for granted? Do people who own/run these places really not know any better? Almost any restaurant you go to whether it be Apoorva, Trishna, Great Punjab or Lings Pavillion all serve beers that are cold. And here we have a speciality beer outlet with such a good pedigree that seems incapable of doing that. Why should I not be disappointed? 

I did a little research on the Internet and found this site which lists how cold beers should be. Have a look, its interesting.

Do not waste your money. Don’t go here. You have plenty of choices in Bandra, from good old Totos to Hawaiian Shack, The Rude Lounge, Bora Bora, the cult favourite Janata Bar, Escobar, Bonobo, Firangi Paani and so many more.

I hate to sound the death knell so early on in the life of a place but I do not predict a long and happy life for The Pint Room